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Gospel: Luke 11: 1-13
Jesus was praying in a certain place, and when he had finished,
one of his disciples said to him,
“Lord, teach us to pray just as John taught his disciples.”
He said to them, “When you pray, say:
Father, hallowed be your name,
your kingdom come.
Give us each day our daily bread
and forgive us our sins
for we ourselves forgive everyone in debt to us,
and do not subject us to the final test.”
And he said to them, “Suppose one of you has a friend
to whom he goes at midnight and says,
‘Friend, lend me three loaves of bread,
for a friend of mine has arrived at my house from a journey
and I have nothing to offer him,’
and he says in reply from within,
‘Do not bother me; the door has already been locked
and my children and I are already in bed.
I cannot get up to give you anything.’
I tell you,
if he does not get up to give the visitor the loaves
because of their friendship,
he will get up to give him whatever he needs
because of his persistence.
“And I tell you, ask and you will receive;
seek and you will find;
knock and the door will be opened to you.
For everyone who asks, receives;
and the one who seeks, finds;
and to the one who knocks, the door will be opened.
What father among you would hand his son a snake
when he asks for a fish?
Or hand him a scorpion when he asks for an egg?
If you then, who are wicked,
know how to give good gifts to your children,
how much more will the Father in heaven
give the Holy Spirit to those who ask him?”
The Gospel of the Lord.
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My mother was sick with pancreatic cancer for nine months. I prayed every day for her healing, until I realized it was not going to happen.
Then I prayed for peace, which, mysteriously, has never left my heart.
Much like the fate of my mother’s health, we’ve all had prayers go seemingly unanswered.
Perhaps one of our most common prayers is for young people, that our children and grandchildren would come to faith. We pray every day… We plant seeds… And we wait.
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Prayer is a spiritual practice as old as humanity itself. It’s the way Christians and non-Christians alike have tried communicating with the Divine.
In the ancient world, even the pagans prayed. Whether you were in Athens, Alexandria, or Rome, temples abounded. But pagans believed that, in those temples, they could manipulate the minds of the gods.
The lengthier a prayer was, or the more generous an offering, the likelier it was that a prayer would be answered. God was like a gumball machine; insert a shiny coin, turn the knob, and hope you get the color you want.
Aware of this practice, Jesus instructed his disciples, “Do not babble like the pagans, who think that they will be heard because of their many words. Your heavenly Father knows what you need before you ask him.”
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However, we are to pray with persistence, like the friend who knocks on his neighbor’s door at midnight. Pray, pray, pray until you get an answer.
“Ask and you will receive,” Jesus says, “seek and you will find; knock and the door will be opened to you.”
This, of course, sounds misleading when a person we pray for is not healed from cancer; when our children or grandchildren haven’t yet returned to Church; or when anything we ask for with persistence isn’t granted.
But the Lord never promises to give us exactly what we want – although, at times, he does.
What he does promise to give us every time we ask is the gift of the Spirit. “If you then, who are wicked, know how to give good gifts to your children” he says, “how much more will the Father in heaven give the Holy Spirit to those who ask him?”
Thus, prayer doesn’t lead directly to things; it leads to a Person – the Holy Spirit – who will guide, instruct, protect, and nourish us on our journeys.
With the Holy Spirit come the gifts of divine strength; wisdom; understanding; peace; patience; kindness; gentleness; love; and faithfulness. Gifts that not only allow us to accept God’s will for our lives, but also to carry it out.
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Thus, at the very heart of this Gospel teaching, Jesus changes the nature of prayer, from, “God, please do what I want,” to, “God, help me to do what you want.”
This is why prayer is necessary for every Christian. Without it, we cannot understand God’s will for our lives; nor would we have the strength to do it. Humanly speaking, this was even true for Jesus.
The one time he is recorded in the Gospels as asking for something for himself, he doesn’t receive it.
In the Garden of Gethsemane, Jesus prayed while sweating blood, “Father, let this cup pass from me, but not my will, but yours be done.” Jesus wanted to be spared from his crucifixion and death, but he wasn’t.
What his Father gave him, instead, was the strength to endure it, because an even greater good came out of it. If the Lord hadn’t died, then he never would’ve been raised – and by extension, neither would we be raised.
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So, what is my own prayer life like?
Do I pray hoping to change God’s mind? Or do I pray for God to change me, to soften my heart to understand and to do his will?
How do I feel about Christ’s promise that, not every persistent prayer will be answered, but anyone who asks will be given the gift of the Holy Spirit?
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May God grant us the grace to pray the Lord’s prayer with both sincerity and surrender: “Your kingdom come, your will be done, on earth as it is in heaven.”
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Image credits: (1) Christ in Gethsemane, Heinrich Hofmann (2) The Methodist Church in Singapore (3) Christ Follower Life